‘When Charity Becomes the Default Response to Poverty, It Risks Normalising Deprivation’

Nick Gardham of Community Organisers – the non-profit membership and training body for community organising in England – sets out why alternative systems of support in local areas have to be seen as a means not an end

The pandemic showed us what we always knew: that in times of crisis, people step up and demonstrate the best of humanity.

Across the UK, we saw stories of volunteers packing food parcels, donation crates full of food and essentials, and heartfelt community appeals, shared online, responded to by hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

These acts of generosity are not new.